Thank you to every teacher, parent, student, and neighbor who packed the Earhart Road parking lot on June 3. Several hundred of you stood shoulder to shoulder in blue, filled the board meeting room, and made one message impossible to ignore: Plan for us. Job well done, Ann Arbor. The board saw you. The district saw you. Lansing saw you.

But the next few weeks are when it matters most, and we need to be honest about what's coming.

Mediated negotiations between the AAEA and the district resume June 15. Two days later, on June 17, the board is expected to adopt next year's budget after one final public hearing. The district is projecting a $4.27 million deficit and is openly discussing building sales, school and program consolidation, and "right-sizing" staff. A "dangerously low" fund balance will be used to argue - once again - that teachers must wait, sacrifice, and settle.

Teachers have absorbed pay cuts or freezes nine times in 16 years. They rebuilt the district's reserves from 2.2% to over 7% through concessionary contracts. Budget pressure is real, but it cannot keep landing on the same shoulders. As we have said from the start: this is not a funding problem, it is a priorities problem.

So as the pressure mounts, our teachers need to know this community is not going anywhere. Remember why we do this:

🔴 $45,910 starting salary - LOWEST in the region, despite 2nd highest per-pupil funding

🔴 0.7% average raise over the past 7 years while inflation rose 27%

🔴 35% healthcare premium share - nearly double the state standard

🔴 99.6% of teachers voted NO to more of the same

🔴 Veteran teachers earn $15,000-$21,000 less than their counterparts in comparable districts, according to AAEA President Fred Klein.

Here is what you can do this week:

✅ Share this petition. We're at almost 1,500 signatures and pushing toward 2,000. Every name tells the board this community is watching.

✅ Attend or speak at the Wed June 17 7pm board meeting before the budget vote.  3700 Earhart Rd.

✅ Keep the conversation going with your friends, neighbors, family, and on social media.

The rally was not the finish line. It was proof of what this community looks like when it stands together. Mediation starts Monday. Let's make sure our teachers walk into that room knowing thousands of us are behind them.

👉 Sign our petition: https://www.change.org/p/ann-arbor-public-schools-teachers-should-be-compensated-fairly

👉 Board meeting calendar: https://www.a2schools.org/board-of-education/board-of-education/board-calendar

Thank you for standing with our teachers.